u.s. officials dismiss allegations of a life threatening crisis. where more than one hundred detainees are reportedly on hunger strike for a second month we talk live to a man who said he was held their. lives lost in syria some western nations are ready to send more to the rebels including antitank. weapons. and once in a decade power shift is complete in china with a new president to impose political policies that will shape the.

international news. this is a twenty four hour a day. for more than one hundred detainees on a hunger strike at guantanamo bay say many of them are close to death the situation has become so desperate representatives of the captors have made a direct appeal to the u.s. defense secretary but u.s. officials deny the allegations and much of the mainstream media remains. reports. guantanamo detainees have been on a hunger strike for more than a month now the facility which is now on strike holds most of the inmates there one hundred thirty people out of one hundred sixty six the total number of prisoners at guantanamo the detainees through their lawyers say most of them are taking part in this we cannot verify exactly how many were left a message with robert do ran the media person from guantanamo very much hope he will get back to us the attorneys for the detainees are saying their health is deteriorating we spoke with. her client there says he lost twenty pounds is the

beginning of the strike at the beginning of february said she and a number of other attorneys had sent a letter with their questions to the authorities at guantanamo copying the justice department she said they had to respond to it. at this point the strike is more than thirty days old and by day forty by we understand from medical experts there are serious health repercussions that start happening things like loss of hearing chancel blindness and in a couple of weeks worse than that ultimately you know substantial as they are for this well it strikes continue for weeks we've just no response to that letter so our parties also say they want to response from the authorities more meaningful than the few remarks by the prison spokesperson in the media robert duran i mentioned him earlier responded to the allegations that the prisoners copies of the koran had been mistreated and that's what presumably triggered the strike he said it was a routine search for contraband and quote the koran is treated with the outmost

respect end of quote it may very well be so from the conversations that we had with the lawyers i got a sense that this act of desperation is not just about the koran the lawyers are saying that these detainees desperately want to get the word out about the situation that they're in not formally accused of anything not knowing whether they're ever going to see their day in court detained indefinitely the u.n. says holding detainees indefinitely at guantanamo bay amounts to torture four years ago president obama signed an executive order to stop torture there but according to the u.n. indefinite detention itself is also a form of torture it's hard to measure the degree of desperation among the inmates there half of them eighty six to be precise are sitting there with papers from the u.s. government which can clear them for release and yet they're still there are human rights organizations where port hundreds of suicide attempts at least seven of them were successful a detainee named odd non latif took his own life last september he was cleared for

release by both bush and obama administrations and yet never released he had spent eleven years at one tunnel that gives some idea about the level of hopelessness cause. by indefinite detention so it's somewhat obvious that through this hunger strike the detainees want to make themselves heard and it's not easy we're one of very few channels for congress this story there is a desire to kind of forget about guantanamo it's very much reflected in the mainstream media here and in the scariest reporting that we have seen here in washington i'm going to check. and in just a few minutes we'll bring you a live interview with a former guantanamo detainee who claims he was tortured at the facility before being cleared of all accusations and released with an apology. on our web site of the moment want to know your opinion on the matter every voice counts at r.t. dot com where you can tell us when and if you think quantum obey will eventually

close so far looking at the results on the screen we can see that it will always be open according to the majority because washington has no interest in shutting it down around a fifth say the facility will cease to exist when the u.s. runs out of money to maintain it we can see that it's slightly less we reckon it will close off to another prison is set up as a replacement and barely any two percent this think that the painful history of one will end only when the us defeat international terrorism so those are the results on the screen there if you haven't cast your vote yet just had to r.t. dot com and have your say we're interested in what you think. the bloody conflict in syria is reached a third year and yet some european nations want to pour more weapons into the crisis torn country e.u. foreign ministers will look at the possibility of lifting an arms embargo on syria next week after france and britain made a major push to put more guns into the hands of forces the civil war's already

claimed an estimated seventy thousand lives and only. she has followed the nation's plight from the beginning. i always compare today syria with the country i once visited before war and hatred and devastation came to these lands what we see today the country is destroyed. and its heritage is talked once too to a father whose son was just killed in a fight in the clashes he was he was so-called process side i was like how you feel of you've just lost your kid and he was like i'm proud to be the father of a martyr because this is this is a fight against forces that. want to destroy our country and i want to protect my country and here's my input to this fight the hardest thing for me and my crew was to to understand that to digest if you want. peace

and war we're sharing the same reality and gunman killing innocent civilians and children. had been cutting has of other people and again civilians taking dinners and families walking on the streets in the same place at the same time and me is part of this reality as well there was there was the most difficult thing to understand it's been a country of an amazing diversity it's been it's been one of the strongest points of assyrians and actually and actually it's it's been a very chilly turned to this series weakest points and i've been working on these idea and here's my report about that this part of syria known as mesopotamia between the tigris and euphrates rivers is considered a cradle of civilization has been home to many african religious groups living in peace and harmony for ages people here believe this diversity is serious strong

point but some warn it could also be used against the country and that's something to destroy. i and the regime slogans in syria have been repeated the longest of all the arab spring countries but assad didn't step down within weeks like the leaders of to measure and egypt nor did his regime fall within months like colonel gadhafi is in libya opposing sides have gone beyond demonstrations and clashes killings have become an everyday reality those wanting a son to go first at home and abroad have decided to target what hurt the most serious diversity pitting people against each other after every massacre and every killing rivers of blood have been joined by streams of mutual accusations and hatred the first blow was dealt to relations between the country's sunni majority and the ruling she had minority some more ignorant

a position and sometimes i want to grow it was never to make a city and it's not the more me once that when i go. we should keep our unity in all of all of. it gabriel a point from commercially living in syria's north east bordering sunni dominated turkey and mostly shia iraq says here in about six tarion intolerance is something new for syria and very alarming in your will feel this pressure for months now especially from gulf countries trying to drag us to this perilous share soon again it's a big threat because a tear society from the inside. and some say it's been feud from the outside it is part of the u.s. strategy and some of the western strategy is to destroy syria by syrians and by arabs and this they are doing successfully. another blow followed with an explosion

at palestinian refugee camps in syria and the cold blooded murder of palestinian conscripts these drive a wedge between the two arab peoples previously on friendly terms they wanted to both weaken the regime and spread despair among palestinians. with kurdish villages in syria's north east targeted the kurdish syrian peaceful co-existence has also been endangered but her cut its approval cations a pure and very dangerous more syrian kurds want to be integrated into syrian society have rights and be respected some turkish kurds maybe do as early ones killing his own people we've never been treated like that of course when violence targets us it can't not affect relations. and fears that those who wanted to see the fall of the regime will witness the country's fall instead. from syria. well coming up after a break here on our t.v.

presenting a new coalition is really needed anyone who signs a deal to form a government with some unlikely partners and political peculiarities we have more on that for you and plenty of other stories after a short break. we speak your language i mean they will not advance the. news programs and documentaries in spanish what matters to you breaking news a little tonnage of angola's stories. for you here to.

ensure that all teach spanish find out more visit i to allahabad dot com. a nation free clinic a. three times four judges three. major and three. three stooges free. download free bloggers videos for your media projects a free medio gondar t. dot com. or two large here most good news continues now this is the israeli prime minister is finally so on the deal to form a coalition ahead of saturday's deadline but he had to make some major compromises to do it to tough negotiations binyamin netanyahu get a long time ally out of the out of bed for the sake of keeping power at any cost.

as the details a new coalition agreement has been signed and this follows weeks of suspicion and mistrust between the various political parties and also turbulent coalition negotiations now that ought to newcomers to the israeli political scene the important point to make is that neither has a lot of political experience the first in fact does not mean he is a media personality that the name of that you know that lives and he is to be the new finance minister which is a hugely important ministry for someone who has no financial background the second is a guy by the name of nothing to be bennett he represents the second movement and he has to be appointed the minister of economy and trade his number two would also be the minister of construction and housing now the importance of this is that it is going to make it harder for the prime minister netanyahu to freeze or stop settlement construction and as a result of also make it more difficult for him to reach any kind of peace deal

with the palestinians this is also the first time in the decades that the government is going to exclude the ultra orthodox parties not much from yahoo has counted on the support of the ultra orthodox parties in the past who would have wanted been in this coalition here. also wanted a bigger coalition and now moving forward as part of the coalition agreement the government in the next forty five days will have to present a new norm on the issue of drafting the ultra religious to the army the new coalition partners one thing to serve in the army the ultra religious parties of course to not want to serve him now who would also need to pass the budget in the next few months and he said he has his hands full. there well just for money you can stay up to speed with the current international news online at r.t. dot com and online all the time what today we report an ill fated campaign a report suggests the much anticipated nato withdrawal from afghanistan in twenty fourteen will leave the country defenseless against militant attacks. also

a lot of the moment just days after the inauguration of the new pope the pontiff sister says france is the first never wanted to head the catholic church but out more at r.t. dot com. in china the shift from one generation of leaders to the next one is complete the new prime minister. is now in charge of the world's second largest economy he faces the challenge of boosting economic growth which has slowed in recent is a report from pricewaterhouse coopers says that by twenty seventeen china will match the u.s. as the world's leading economy before surging ahead also set to increase is military spending the struggle for regional influence between beijing and

washington is long standing now this map shows how the u.s. has increased its military presence a source of concern for china's leaders c.c.t.v. correspondent and we says that the growth of american influence in the region is fueling local disputes. there used to be a superstitious believe almost in china about that eight percent growth rate of the national g.d.p. for that little number has been slowed down to about seven point five percent it has to be a slow down number because china is doing this transition from a growth in quantity to a growth in quality many argue it is extremely important to do reform reform really has been the key word for the new generation of leaders coming into power recently mr lee could child who is the now the cut chinese premier he's been talking about reform is the largest dividend china can enjoy for its course for the progress values president mr xi jinping after being elected was calling him

a delay to our president obama and he advocated it to two countries could have mutual respect and openness to one another things can be better and he's been talking about a new kinds of relations between new powers and that of course the definition is not being given by the chinese side however it seems that the u.s. has already got its own definition for example pivot to asia or rebalancing and as a result there has been increasing number of territorial disputes and or disputes in other stores between china and some of the asian neighbors will start to come in the united states by be a backup for them in the region but the china seems always want to have a peaceful neighborhood that seems to be a really believe the chinese have been holding over the history. some of the world news in brief now the south thousands of students gathered in the streets of spain's capital madrid on thursday this after the country's government slashed education funding in a bid to ease spain's crushing debt burden the demonstrators are outraged over

soaring tuition fees at spanish universities for tens of thousands of teaching staff have been laid off meanwhile spain faces record unemployment of fifty five percent of young people currently out of work. thousands of flooded the streets of the capital of venezuela for a final march of one of the late hugo chavez a procession headed by the interim president and his former confidant nicolas maduro is to escort the body of the former leader to a military museum here chavez died last week following a long battle with cancer. the major anti-government rally was held in the eastern saudi arabian town of our media despite a warning from the country's rulers that by that they would firmly deal with any dissent demonstrators called for the release of political prisoners and condemned the government's crackdown on protests saudi arabia seen a string of rallies since the beginning of the arab spring most of which were held in the country's oil rich east.

but we're turning to our top story now more than one hundred detainees on hunger strike at guantanamo bay as i promise we'll get some reaction and insight from a former inmate we're not he was held there under false accusations and claims to being tortured while he was at the taney thanks very much indeed for being with us here on r.t. so you say you were tortured can you tell us in what way. yes of course i have have been myself tortured and different kind of. there was. the only reason why they brought us to guantanamo was because there's no any human rights existing over there like in prisons or us and that's mean they could. do and make with us whatever they like to do and what did they do they specially tortured me to force me for signing papers and every time when i refused they

kept just touching me in different kind of face did you see physical torture that was it more mental stress that you put three. it was both of them like physical and otherwise they just try to really all kind of to break us in i saw. they tried psychological ways and physical torture too to break the detainees and the same way with myself. every time if you refused to do anything they told shut you punish you for this and if you give us an idea of the sort of words and you give us an idea of lee can you give us an idea of the sort of punishment he became really punished no fool for not seeing or it would just give us an idea of what those punishments were. done to

other people just give us an idea of what it exactly it was that you went three. i mean i must have got tortured by electroshocks and waterboarding and stuff like that but i have seen also a. kid's life nine years to a few sold kids inside the camp and of course it was for me more difficult to to watch of those kids how they get getting beaten up in front of me and it was for me really harder to get tortured myself. those torture still carry on there do you think. i believe it's still going on of course because. i'm sure that it's going to go on because i have fermat's prisoners detainees who got released and. i have talked to them they told me what's going on and it's pretty much the same and is that the reason why we're seeing these over one hundred inmates now on hunger strike and endangering their own lives that are taking

desperate measures is it about abuse or is it other reasons as well. i guess it's one of the reasons i'm sure they would have a lot of reasons why they gone on hunger strike now but i believe it's bad situations they want they want to go to court of course and they want just their rights they have. no opportunity to go to the court and they don't have the rights to see their families they don't have the right to to write to their families and receive letters and all those kind of things. i'm sure many many reasons why they go into the hunger strike but. right now i am sure this will be. will be very hard and very tough tell us why were you detained there in the first place. i got sold through.

life five five months later they found out that i am innocent and the government to take me back so they said this man is innocent he is ready to go back home and to the german government they refused he said you don't want them back and i had to stay for a few small. in the torture camp after i was clear that i'd be innocent so let's get it clear you. are in effect sold you on to the u.s. and i understand that that's not just the only case i spoke to not long ago he said he was representative clients who had gone through the same ordeal but why then if the justice system did recognize the fact that you were imprisoned falsely why do you think it is so long after being signed up for release for you to actually go home which of course is happening to a number of inmates now why is that the case. how is german your month when they said we don't want him back the americans didn't on the

count anytime true so were they could let me go because. they were just going to the german government agree that begone going to take me back and you until i'm good americans she said ok i want them back and it was like already fought five years later five years all right just one more question will this for hunger strike achieve anything just briefly yes or no with what we're seeing at the moment. and number of the office and number of the people and went on for right now is over ten. so i'm sure this will reach. bigger numbers with dishonest or on the right thank you very much indeed for joining us joining us live from germany is a former guantanamo detainee and he was held there for what turned out to be false accusations. live here in moscow

and more news now the israeli prime minister has finally signed a deal to form a coalition that is a story i can't bring you for the moment but i can bring you the story about the red planet it's a place that still has traces of life meaning that some are now attempting daunting technical challenges to prove that is the case and one of the toughest is digging deep into its soil and that's the goal of a brand new mission has just been agreed by the european and russian space agencies or a rover to be sent to mars and twenty eighteen will drill thirty times further below the surface and the currently operating curiosity vehicle with more on the ambitious plans utopias going on. this search for past or present life on mars screen to news and this time scientists are digging deep the mars project is based on it to freeze exploration first in two thousand and sixteen russian proton heavy rocket to usually used for delivering satellites and space station components

should blast off from lack of a cosmodrome in kazakhstan sending a european orbital probe and a stationary test lander to the red planet speech to his plan for two thousand and eighteen one a second proton rocket will deliver a rover named pastor after landing it will then begin tracing the life on mars this includes drilling two meters deep into the ground that's around six and a half feet to collect samples the mission's other objective is to study mars a surface to find out what dangers there may be for future manned missions powerful dust storms extreme temperatures radiation and so on are not exactly your ideal working conditions the european space agency has already invested over four hundred million euro into the project which was initially supposed to be conducted with nasa but it backed out due to financial constraints russia on the other hand was happy to jump in and the science providing delivery vehicles including the

a landing pod will also develop some of these scientific equipment so far the red planet has only been visited by soviet and us vehicles eggs on mars will be europe's first visit to the red planet this kind of arty. well that's it for me in the news team for the moment we'll be back with more for you in about thirty minutes from now in the meantime pete on the felonies gets clash in a heated debate it's crystal mix the lahti. a u.n. investigator ben emmerson has decided to not let the sins of the recent past go he's demanding that the u.s. government release documents about the cia's program for addition and secret detention of suspected terrorists everson believes that there is now credible

evidence that shows that cia black sites were used to extradite suspected terrorists with neither charges nor access to a lawyer you know nothing says protect a democracy like snagging people in foreign countries without even charging them with a crime this huge investigator may have good intentions but the thing is that no matter how much he and his u.n. pals urge the u.s. to prosecute officials connected with torture or expose classified information they really have no power to do anything if you haven't noticed the u.n. is very happy to section and punish certain countries birdie if you out there i even have to think that they'll sanction the usa or send a peacekeeping mission to stop the human rights violators in washington not a chance the un really has no business meddling in the affairs of sovereign countries but they do it all the time but there is a zero percent chance that the un will stand up to the bad behavior from the u.s. government no matter how much it's investigators wind and plead and beg but that's just my opinion.

hello and welcome to cross talk where all things are considered on peter lavelle the catholic church has a new leader of pope francis from argentina and a jesuit you see mr dramatic even bold departure from the past can this simple man of humble origins reverse the fortunes of a church in crisis and what can the world expect from a pope hate when from the global south. across not the recent election i'm joined by sister my report in london she is a religious sister and.